FORMER PRIEST and convicted child abuser Bill Carney is reported to be back in Spain after a local paper in Gloucestershire reported his presence there last Friday.
The Gloucestershire Echosaid Carney (61) had moved into a semi-detached property in Northleach, near Cheltenham in the Cotswolds, home of his former wife, Joan Clayton (70).
The paper had been contacted by a man who said Carney was living near a local playground and wondered whether his two young children would be able to use it again. It is believed Carney left Northleach on Saturday and is now in Benidorm.
Ordained in 1974 for the Dublin archdiocese, he served as a priest until 1989 and was laicised in 1992 following a canon law trial.
The Murphy commission reported that it was aware of suspicions or complaints against him involving 32 known individuals but that it was also aware “that he abused many more children”. In 1983, he pleaded guilty to two counts of indecent assault. The Probabation Act was applied.
The Murphy report described him as “one of the most serious serial abusers investigated by the commission” and described the Catholic Church’s handling of his case as “nothing short of catastrophic”.
Following publication of the Murphy report in November 2009, BBC journalist Olenka Frenkiel reported that Carney was in Lanzarote, where he had been living for a year with wife Joan.
On hearing of the report findings, she returned to their home in Scotland and began divorce proceedings. Last night, her son Paul told The Irish Times that as part of the divorce settlement last year Carney had been awarded £100,000 (€114,600).
He said his mother’s marriage to Carney lasted about 10 years and that he had turned up on her doorstep two weeks ago claiming he was getting treatment for heart problems and asked could he stay for a time.
Describing his mother as “a nice, quiet, gullible old lady”, he said she relented as she felt sorry for Carney. Now “she doesn’t want anything to do with him”, he said.
